Survivor: The Amazon – Outplayed and Outwitted, an Interview with Roger Sexton

Roger Sexton came into Survivor loud and strong, and that’s the way he went out as well. RealityNewsOnline had the opportunity to ask him some questions about his game play and his time in the Amazon.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Roger, and thanks for taking the time to answer these questions from RealityNewsOnline. Let's start at the beginning. What was your game plan going in and how did you adapt it once you were in a tribe of all men?

Roger Sexton: My game plan going in was to organize the tribe and have each of us describe our assets so that we could function as a strong tribe, with the goal of winning immunity challenges so that we did not have to face the difficult decision of voting a tribe member off. The beginning of the game is truly a team effort and you are only as strong as your weakest member. Therefore, it was important that we all work together and help each other to win. Surprisingly enough I do not feel that women are inferior and my original plan was to form an alliance with the expected four female members of my tribe. As we all know, Mark was not going to allow for mixed tribes. When we got into the canoes and were told that this game was going to be the "Battle of the Sexes," I quickly realized that I was going to have a tough time, especially considering the fact that six members of my tribe were under 33 years of age. Butch and I both came to the realization that we had to stick together if we were going to survive. By the second day it became evident that the strongest members of the tribe were Dave, Alex, Matt, Butch, and myself. Butch and I were able to get Dave and Alex to join our alliance. Since Ryan and Dan really weren't contributing to the success of the tribe, we decided to vote them off if we lost immunity. Meanwhile, I got with Rob and told him that we would not let the other young men vote him off and that if he would vote for Ryan or Dan he would at least be assured of fifth place. Dave told us that he could not vote off Ryan because they where from the same town and he gave Ryan his word. Therefore, when the first vote came we almost went for Dan. Ryan was much more talkative than Dan and it was decided that we couldn't tolerate another night of his chatter. Matt came to me after the vote and indicated that he was sorry that he voted for me. The next vote we all voted Dan off and we now had a very strong team. All of us agreed that we would stay together until the final six and then it would be each man for himself. This seemed like a good plan to assure that the men would beat the women.

RNO: Were you aware that Rob was plotting against you during the first votes that ended up going against Ryan and Daniel – if so, why did you think he would stay loyal?

Roger: I was unaware of Rob's plotting.

RNO: When Dave created the new tribe, did he ever tell you and Butch that Heidi was in a tight alliance with Jenna or that perhaps you should all try to break up that alliance?

Roger: Dave told Butch and me that Heidi was tight with Jenna.

RNO: After all the effort you and Butch made to make feel Christy welcome, why did you try to vote her out instead of trying to put her on the jury?

Roger: The vote for Christy was decided by the original six of us before we met Christy. We obviously didn't know which of the women would be left, but we came up with the following order: Janet, Jeanne, JoAnna, Deena, Christy, Shawna, Heidi & Jenna. Deena won the immunity challenge, therefore, we voted for Christy.

RNO: Several times early in the game, we saw you make reference to wanting to slap Daniel around or give him a "kung fu chop." Looking at Daniel – not in game terms but in terms of muscle mass – do you think this would really have been a good idea?

Roger: Yes, Dan was all talk and show. Muscle mass doesn't mean one is tough. By the way the "kung fu chop" was a reference to Dan's inability to get across the beam. He told us that he was a black belt. I think balance is one the essential talents of a black belt. Also, I am in no way a racist. I have many great friends that are from different ethnic groups including Asian.

RNO: Were you accusing Ryan and Daniel of being lazy as part of a strategy, or did they really make you that upset?

Roger: I was that upset with both Ryan and Dan. As indicated in my first answer I was not alone in this assessment. I was just more vocal about it.